Watching Egypt

I’ve been watching events in Egypt along with much of the world. I thought I’d share a couple of the sources I find useful. Obviously Al Jazeera leads the way with ongoing courageous reporting. The station and the individual reporters and staff have been under constant pressure and attack, but they have continued bringing terrific coverage. The Al Jazeera twitter feed, Egypts protests on twitter is constantly informative. I keep the television tuned to Al Jazeera, but have limited time to watch.

b at Moon of Alabama has been providing a record of events in Cairo with informed and insightful comments. The readers there who comment on his posts bring excellent information and links as well. I learn a variety of information here that it is hard to find anywhere else.

The Angry Arab News Service makes well informed commentary. From tonight:

Baradi`i
I don’t like Baradi`i, nor to I trust him. But my impression is that US official meetings with him did not go well, that they did not receive iron-clad commitment regarding–what else?–the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

I would wish this is not the case, but US foreign policy has been pretty consistent over the years. Keep a client dictator in charge in wherever possible, and go to a lot of trouble and expense to do it. Local lives and livelihoods matter not at all.

It certainly looks like Mubarak sent in gangs of thugs today in order to create enough violence to make a crackdown and martial law “necessary”.

Apologies to regular readers for very little writing lately. Among other things I’ve been playing a very small part in local political and budget matters, but it has still taken a lot of my writing time and energy.

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For those like myself who may benefit from more background information – for a very good primer on the various the military, economic and social forces, groups and interests in Egypt:Why Mubarak Is Out. (h/t MoA)

I am looking through your site to find your name. I would be most grateful if you could take a look at my site. We are so excited that Egypt has had its first fairly fair election, with a very high participation rate.